The Unit
by writer xjx
Summary: Dimitri didn't die in Shadow Kiss. The effects of Lissa's bond have worsened,taking Dimitri's advice Rose talks to Lissa, only for Liss to turn her back. To save her life Rose has to leave her old life behind but is offered the chance to change the world.
1. Chapter 1

"Thank you all, so much."

"Not at all Miss Hathaway, I'm glad we could help." Kirova replied.

"Thank you" Rose repeated, as she left the headmistresses office.

"Rose!"

Rose turned around to see Alberta walking up to her.

"By all accounts, it would be my position to tell Guardian Belikov of this matter, but I understand that you share a more than a student mentor relationship, therefore I was willing to make an exception, if you want it that is?"

"Yeah, I think it would be better if it came from me, thanks Alberta" Rose answered, smiling briefly before turning and heading to the Dhampir dorms.

As the dhampir dorms came into view Rose stopped to take a deep breath, looking up at the building, before spinning round to look at the school. The place that she'd run from, the place she was dragged back to, the place where she discovered who she really was, the place where she fell in love, the place she called home.

"Rose?"

At the sound of her name Rose snapped her head in the direction of the noise.

"Dimitri"

"Are you ok? You've been standing here for a while."

"Um....we need to talk."

"Sure, what's up?"

"In private"

Nodding in response Dimitri motioned for Rose to follow him, as he lead the way across the grounds, through the trees until they reached the abandoned cabin. Their place.

"What's going on?" Dimitri asked as he closed the cabin door.

"You might want to sit down"

"Rose, will you please tell me what's going on, you're really starting scare me." Dimitri pleaded as Rose started to pace.

"I took your advice. I talked to Liss, about everything that's been going on with me. I told her everything I told you...well actually I told her more than I told you, because I'm pretty sure some of it would make me sound crazier than you all ready think I am. Anyway... I told her, and she said; 'but that's your job right, I mean you're my guardian, it's your job to die for me'. I couldn't believe it, neither could Adrian for that matter, I searched the bond to see if she was under compulsion or something, so did Adrian. Nothing...it was all Liss." Rose finished sitting down on the bed.

Dimitri sat still for a moment, unsure of what to say, before he quickly got up and moved to sit next to Rose on the bed.

"What are you going to do?"

"Alberta overheard the end of our conversation, and well.......lets just say she wasn't exactly happy with Liss' reaction. Anyway she took me to see Kirova, she and they gave me my options. I could stay and act like nothing is happening, I could ask to be reassigned, I could stay here and become a mentor, or I was given the off the record option of going off on my own, either way they're left the choice up to me" Rose explained.

"So, what did you decide?" Dimitri asked.

" A combination of three, and I've also been awarded early graduation. After everything that's happened some of the Dhampirs and a few Moroi have been awarded early graduation. All my teachers have agreed they have nothing left to teach me, so they've all agreed. I personally think that they're just desperate to get rid of me." She added making Dimitri laugh.

"When do you graduate?" Dimitri asked quietly.

"Two days" Rose answered softly. "And as much as I really, really want to, I don't know if.... once I've graduated, I.... for the next year or so, my job is going to be.... and I don't know if...if we'll be able to..." She trailed off, her eyes studying her hands intently.

"Oh." Dimitri replied in understanding "Look I understand, you're eight-teen it's understandable that you want to experience..."

"NO! No, that's not what I meant" Rose interrupted, "I meant that, I'm not going to have a lot of free time, and although I'll want to I probably won't be able to see or talk to you as much as I'll want. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'll understand if _you_ want to... you know" she added looking at her hands once again.

"Not a chance" Dimitri replied with absolute certainty, "If you need a year or so, then I'll wait a year or so"

"I can't ask you to do that, I can't ask you to wait for me"

"Your not asking, I'm telling. As long as it takes I'll wait, I'll wait for you Roza." Dimitri promised caressing Rose's cheek, and bringing her face up to meet his.

"I wish you didn't have to, I wish we could just be together now. It always seems like there's something going against us, the world never seems to give us a chance." Rose replied looking into Dimitri's eyes.

Bringing her hand up to Dimitri's face, Rose gently traced his features before cupping the back of his neck and bringing his face forward to meet his. Their lips collided in a fury of fiery passion, each of them pouring all of their repressed emotions into the kiss, telling each other how much pain the separation would cause.

Pulling away, Rose rested her forehead against Dimitri's, her eyes still closed as she pressed a chaste but loving kiss against his lips.

"I love you" Rose whispered gently, just loud enough for Dimitri to hear her, before she stood quickly and left the cabin, her heart unable to take the pain of saying: _'Goodbye'_.


	2. Chapter 2

As the wind brushed lightly over her face, she closed her eyes and couldn't help losing herself in her memories. It had been almost a year since she last saw him, and she could still remember, the way he smelt, the feel of his arms around her, the taste of his lips, the way he...

"Rose?"

"Hey Mia" she replied opening her eyes, but not turning to face Mia.

"You ok?" She asked concerned.

"Yeah, just admiring the view."

The view from the balcony was impressive, you could see straight down the valley, the mountains rising on each side as the river wound through the middle.

"Liar" She laughed. "You wanna talk about it?"

"You know that saying; _'It's better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all'_"

"Yeah"

"It sucks"

"You lost him?" Mia asked coming to stand beside me, leaning against the railing.

"When I came here. I left him behind" Rose explained and she could feel the tears prickling in her eyes.

"I'm sorry" she replied, placing her hand on my shoulder in comfort.

"It's ok" Rose said quickly shaking her head, "What did you want anyway?"

Mia gave a small smile letting Rose know she had let the subject drop, before answering.

"It's time"

The heat hit him as soon as he stepped of the plane, he wasn't used to this much heat.

"Afternoon Gentlemen" A voice greeted as the remainder of the party stepped off the plane, and he turned to see Tasha waiting for the arrivals by three open top jeeps. "Now if you would all like to climb aboard, we'll head to the base."

"Well now that that's out of the way, I will hand you over to your instructors." Tasha finished as Eddie took her place at the front.

"Alright Gents, if you would like to follow me" He directed as he turned and lead the way through the complex.

As they passed through the entry way into the complex, they entered what appeared to be an outdoor training area. About size of a football field, with various different stations set up, some they knew others had them perplexed, the floor was a soft tar-mac, showing numerous amounts of markings.

In the centre of the area, inside a white ring painted on the tar-mac, they could see two figures sparing, from this distance you could see that one was good, while the other was _really_ good.

"What the hell?" Eddie exclaimed

"Don't look at me, they've been a this for about half an hour now" A female voice answered.

"Oi, you two think you could wrap it up" Eddie called to the pair.

And as soon as he finished his sentence the fight was over, one of the pair lay flat on the back while the other hovered over their head, their fist positioned directly over the losers heart, if they had been holding a dagger the blow would have been fatal.

"You're dead. Again. You really need to get laid Sparky" The winner of the fight laughed, extending their hand to help their partner up off the floor.

"Right gents" Eddie began, addressing the crowd of damphir and moroi that had gathered around the training circle, to gain a better view of the fight, an impressed look etched on each of their faces. "Allow me to introduce myself and the rest of the team. I'm Eddie Castile and this is my partner Mia Rinaldi, we're the secondary team..."

"Sorry, the secondary team?" One of the crowed interrupted.

"Yeah, the secondary team. We have a primary and secondary team at present, but once you're trained to a more adequate standard that will change." Eddie explained.

"Adequate?" A member of the crowed fumed, clearly insulted, oblivious to the fact that there was now only three people standing at the front, whilst the fourth circled behind the group.

"This is Christian Ozera, one half of the primary team..." Eddie continued, his temper rising.

"HELL NO! I did not sign up to work with strigoi wannabes" The same member of the crowd exclaimed.

But before anyone could react to his words, he was slammed fast first into the floor, the force breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious for a minute.

"And our final member of the team Rose Hathaway, the second half of the primary team and Christian's partner." Eddie finished as Rose made her way back to the front, ignoring the groaning guardian at her feet, before turning and facing the group.

Facing the group for the first time, Rose suddenly gasped quietly, there, standing on the edge of the group was Dimitri, the same look of shock spread across his face. Glancing away Rose quickly gained her composure and addressed the group.

"Alright gents, I'm gonna skip the pleasantries, cause quite frankly you've already started to rub me the wrong way. I'm sure you're all wondering how things work here, so let me break it down for you, as of right now all you're experience and all your training means... fuck all. You better start getting used to feel inadequate because, for the next 4 months that is how you're going to feel every time you step foot in this gym. You've all gone through basic training, and you can all take down a strigoi , but until you've learnt the skills to put down two in under five minutes you are not leaving this island." Rose explained sternly.

"And why the hell should we listen to you" A cocky Moroi yelled.

"Because I pull rank. I am you lord and master, your army general. Ozera is second in command, followed by Castile and Rinaldi, and the only way any of you are leaving this island is if I say you can, so if you continue to piss me off you better comfortable you aren't going anywhere unless I decide to personally kick you arse out of here. While you are here you will show everyone respect, and you will do as instructed. This isn't summer camp boys, we are going to be training you to deal with the worst of the worst. At the time you would call 'retreat' that's the time when we give the order to engage. Anyone who has a problem with that better now, because we cannot afford weak links, you're entering the seventh level of hell boys and you better be ready for it." Rose replied fiercely.

The sudden buzzing of Rose's PDA, broke the tense silence that had fallen across the open gym. Quickly plucking the PDA off her hip, Rose read the message before glancing back at Christian, giving him one quick nod, before he nodded and reply and took off running through the crowd and through a door at the entrance of the gym.

"Ed, get them settled in and explain the training schedule" Rose directed before turning back the crowd. "One last thing, you do not tell, your friends, your families, your _priest_, what you do here. Welcome to The Unit." Rose finished as she made her way through the now parted crowed to where Christian now waited at the door, and throwing a bag over her shoulder before the pair disappeared from sight.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a slight buzz of conversation in the cafeteria, with everyone asking who, and where each other had come from, but the main topic of conversation was their instructors, one in particular.

"She's just a kid, who the hell does she thinks she is telling us we're inadequate?" Novak sneered.

"Well from the way she planted your face in the floor..." Kos smirked, stifling a laugh.

But before Novak could reply, Rose and Christian came through the the doors of the cafeteria, a slight dusting of dirt on their faces, knuckles bruised and their clothes slightly torn.

"Food!" Rose groaned making her way over to the buffet, where she began piling her plate, Christian shaking his head in amusement before turning his attention to his own plate.

As Rose sat down on one of the benches, everyone became very aware of the foreign object sticking out of her back, it had clearly been snapped off, and her shirt torn to expose it.

"Guardian Hathaway!" Tasha Ozera yelled as she entered the dinning hall carrying a silver briefcase full of media supplies, "I do not appreciate it when you walk off in the middle of a medical exam, particularly when you have foreign objects extruding from you body!" Tasha scolded, before snapping on a pair of gloves and pouring alcohol over some gauze.

"Hey, we need to sort the recruits out, you know, who's with whom" Eddie said, as he and Mia took a seat opposite Rose and Christian.

"I get Stan" Rose replied, just as Tasha pulled the object from Rose's back with a sickening squelching pop, making Rose groan loudly through her teeth, pain evident in the noise.

"Nice" Eddie exclaimed as he caught sight of the three inch stake that Tasha had pulled from Rose's body, just above her right hip.

"You were lucky" Tasha said to Rose, as she pressed a gauze to the wound, "No splinters and it didn't go in far enough to do any damage"

"Good" Rose replied reaching back to hold pressure on the gauze, as Tasha tapped it in place.

"How did it happen?" Mia asked clearly concerned.

"That is a good question" Tasha said angrily, once she a packed away the medial kit. "You don't take hits Rose, what happened?"

"What do you think happened? A couple of moroi kids showed up thinking they could _help, _idiots almost got themselves killed" Rose explained clearly frustrated.

"How many?" Tasha questioned.

"Idiots or strigoi?" Rose asked.

"Strigoi"

"About 15" Christian explained.

"Any get away?" Tasha asked continuing her questioning.

"Nope. Clean job, apart from the two idiots... I left the names on your desk." Christian replied.

"Good"

"So Tasha about these recruits..." Rose began.

And that was it, the cafeteria sat there in stunned silence at how quickly the scene had past, and how quickly the brief explanation of the mission had been dealt with... or not as the case appeared to be.

"Do we have a problem gentlemen?" Rose's voice rang out disrupting the silence, a wave of head shakes giving her, her answer. "Then why are you all sitting there staring?"

"We're just not used to things being dealt with that quickly" Kos answered.

"Which are you referring to, Kos, the mission debrief or the injury?" Rose asked her tone lowering.

"Well...honestly both" Kos replied.

"Like I said before things work a little differently here" Rose answered rising form her seat, "We work a lot faster than any of you will be used to, including medical attention and paperwork. With the medical, the sooner it's dealt with the sooner it can heal, and as for the paperwork, no-one likes doing it so we try and keep it to a bare minimum, only the essentials are required" Rose explained, a quiet laugh rumbling through the room, "Any other questions?" Rose asked kindly, actually opening the floor for questions.

"Yeah" A moroi asked raising his hand.

"You're an Ivashkov, right?" Rose asked.

"Yeah" he replied.

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

"The strigoi you just came back from, 15?"

"Yeah, 15" Rose replied.

"But there were only two of you?" Ivashkov questioned clearly interested, he questioned had sparked the interest of the whole group and every eye was now fixed on her.

"Christian, is my partner, he's not my charge or my assignment, he's my partner, we work together as a team. Although I am the better and more experience fighter of the two of us, Christian specialises in fire, a strigoi gets pretty distracted when they're on fire. But it's not quite that simply, using an element is draining on it's controller, and the more power that's put behind it the more draining it becomes. So both of us having the ability to fight and one of us holding a definite distraction... handling 15 strigoi is _almost_ cake, almost." Rose finished professionally, but with a smile.

"And that is what we will be training you to do" Tasha explained, taking off where Rose finished "We will be training you to work _with_ moroi, using you're specialisms defensively and expanding and strengthening _all_ your fighting abilities, but not until tomorrow, so until then enjoy the rest of your meal, feel free to look around and get a good nights rest, you're going to need it."Tasha grinned before she left the room.

"Alright guys, I'm calling it a night" Mia announced a while later, rising from the table.

"Yeah, me too" Christian agreed his arm coming to rest over Mia shoulders, "See you guys later, although hopefully not too soon" He smirked before leaning down to kiss Mia as they left the room.

"I'm gonna head to the gym, you coming?" Eddie asked getting up from his seat.

"Nah, I'm good" Rose smile softly in reply.

"Alright, see you later" Eddie replied as he left the room.

Aware that almost every eye in the room was on her, Rose gently rose from her seat, clearly in no real hurry to be anywhere, she walked over to the paneled wall next to the buffet counter. Pressing on the wall four times, Rose pulled the panels back to reveal a bar set into the wall. Grabbing a glass Rose added a few ice cubes before pouring herself a generous measure of Jack Daniels.

"Bar's open, just don't get drunk" Rose told the few remaining recruits as she made her way out the door that lead to the beach, settling herself on one of the beach beds that decorated the sand.

Propping up the cushions Rose lead back, taking in the smell and soft breeze of the ocean.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Have I ever stopped you before" Rose replied looking up to see Dimitri standing next to the bed, smiling before he climbed onto the empty side.

"Hey" He smiled.

"Hey"


	4. Chapter 4

"I thought I was hallucinating when I first saw you here" Dimitri said softly, breaking the comfortable silence.

"I was shocked to see you too, although thinking about it I really shouldn't have been, we requested the best." Rose replied with a soft smile.

"So this is what..."

"Yeah"

"You never did tell me exactly what happened." Dimitri pressed.

"After we came back from the caves, I talked to Liss. I remembered what you said about her being my friend, and how she would give up the magic if she new what it was doing to me, so I asked her, and... well I told you her reply. I had an appointment to see Kirova later that day anyway, she was going to tell me about my early graduation, but when Alberta overheard Liss..." Rose explained trailing off.

"What made you decide this, The Unit?" Dimitri asked.

"It was a combination of two things, something Adrian said to me, but it was mostly something you told me. Adrian once told me that I try and save everybody, this way I making a serious contribution, but what really helped me decide was you, or rather what you told me; '_sometimes, you have to know when to put yourself first'_. It was either stay and slowly go insane and die, or I could leave and have a life and a freedom I never never dreamed I could have."

"Must be strange to have gone from protecting Christian to working with him?"

"Not really. I mean yeah, we are the prototype for this, but we're also the inspiration." Rose replied.

"What do you mean?" Dimitri asked confused.

"Do you remember when we went after Victor Dashkov, and the phi hounds, Christian and I fought them off. Then in Spokane..." Rose continued, ignoring Dimitri's shocked expression as she approached the subject, he knew it was one she avoided talking about and had never fully told him what had happened there. "Christian and I worked together so we could free the others and escape, and then when the Strigoi attacked the school... It's not strange because we've always done it, now we just get paid to do it" Rose finished with a laugh.

"You seem happy here." Dimitri observed, "I can't remember the last time I saw you smile."

"Happier" Rose corrected, "I'm not completely happy, at least.... I wasn't" Rose finished her eyes locking with Dimitri's.

Their eyes held for a brief moment before their lips crashed together, all the pent up emotion, the sorrow, the anguish, that had been caused by their separation pouring into the kiss, before being overwhelmed by the love they still felt for one another, the love which only intensified during their separation.

"Roza" Dimitri breathed as they reluctantly parted both of the gasping for air.

"I missed you... so much" Rose breathed in reply, before crushing her lips back to Dimitri's.

"Can we do this? What about The Unit? Are we allowed? Please say we are, because I don't think I can hide this again." Dimitri pleaded.

"We are, as long as it doesn't interfere, we can. I actually think that's part of the reason you're here" Rose replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Tasha is in charge of recruitment, who gets accepted and who doesn't. Not long after I left the academy, she found me and I was a complete mess. We'd had a really hard day training, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to be with you, have you wrap you arms around me again, that's when I really felt the pain that leaving you caused. When Tasha found me I could barely breathe, she let cry my eyes dry and I told her everything. I think your name has been at the top of her list ever since we started recruiting."

"So everyone already knows?" Dimitri smiled.

"Tasha and Christian know, Mia and Eddie know I left someone behind, they don't know for definite that it was you." Rose smiled.

"For definite? Dimitri questioned.

"I think it's a toss up between you and Adrian" Rose laughed as Dimitri frowned at the mention of Adrian, as she leaned forward and once again pressed her lips to his.

VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

"You really are sadistic you know that?" Christian commented as Rose stood practically bouncing with excitement next to him.

"Just thinking about how sweet revenge tastes." Rose grinned in reply.

"What is wrong with you?" Christian laughed, "You look dare I say it.... happy."

"I'm allowed to be happy" Rose smiled in reply.

"Uh-huh. I suppose it's got nothing to do with a moonlight rendezvous you had with a particular Russian last night?"

"Shut up" Rose smiled nudging Christian with her shoulder.

"Thought so" Christian smirked, before his expression suddenly became serious.

"Don't worry we both agreed that out in the open and in the field everything is strictly professional."

"And behind closed doors?"

"Do you really want to know the answer to that?"Rose smirked.

Suddenly a siren sounded and Eddie could be heard yelling and banging on doors.

"Come on you lazy lot, I want on the court ready for action NOW!" Eddie yelled.

The doors of the compound burst open as the Damphir and Moroi recruits came running out onto the front court.

"Morning Gents!" Rose called, a smirk playing on her lips.

"Urgh! What time is it?" one of the Moroi yawned.

"4 a.m." Rose replied, "And time to start your training."

"Right your going to be split up into two groups, half of you will be training with me and half of you with be training with Shade" Eddie instructed once everyone had congregated in the gym.

"Who?" One of the Moroi asked.

"Me" Rose replied from her perch on one of the bench presses. "We each have call signs, you'll find out why, later." she continued noticing the sea of confused expressions.

"And half of you will be training with me, 10 moroi and 10 damphir in each group. NOW!" Eddie added as no-one moved, "Right this group will be group 1 and this group will be group 2, group 1 you're with me and group 2 your with the primary." Eddie directed noticing Stan's place within the groups, before he and Mia lead their group out of the gym.

"First off we will be focusing on increasing your physical strength and stamina, so be prepared to become very acquainted with weights, treadmills, punch bags, etc. We will be pulling aside in groups and testing your fighting abilities. Novak, Kos and the two Ivashkov's you're up first" Christian instructed as he and Rose made their way over to the training ring.

"Nice job Belikov." Rose nodded to Dimitri before turning her attention to Stan, "And what were you doing Alto?"

"What do you mean? I was ready to back Belikov up if he needed it!" Stan exclaimed.

"Exactly you weren't thinking about the efficiency of the kill you were focusing on protecting the Moroi!"

"You can't be serious!" Stan yelled in frustration causing everyone I the arena to tune into the conversation, "You're judging me on what you _think_ I was thinking! How can you be sure what I'm thinking?"

"Instinct" Rose smirked.

Christian burst out laughing at the role reversal, even Dimitri could help but snicker, as Rose walked away.

"What the hell?" Stan exclaimed.

"You do realise you did the exact same thing to her during her field experiment at the academy" Dimitri explained fighting a smile. "I always knew that was going to bite you in the ass."

"Ah shit!" Stan exclaimed, "She's going to make my life hell isn't she?"

"Pretty much" Christian snickered.

"Right boys, time to test your running speed." Rose called across the gym, before she turned and lead the group from the gym and to the edge of the forest of trees.

"This test is simple, all you have to do is catch me" Rose smiled as she addressed the group.

"That's it" Stan commented.

"That's it" Rose replied with a smile, "I'll even give you a head start, and as soon as I break through the group, you can begin the chase, and to give you just a bit more incentive, who ever manages to catch me will receive a 24hour pass from training, free to take whenever you feel like it."

"Seriously?" Kos asked.

"Seriously" Rose smiled, and gestured in the direction of the trees, signalling for the group to start running.

A minute after the group started through the trees Rose started running, taking her no time at all to catch up with the group. Passing through the group Rose was unsurprised to find Dimitri at it's helm, followed closely by Kos and Stan.

"You ready?" Rose smiled running along side the three for a moment, "Catch me!" She added before unleashing her top speed.

Swinging gracefully from branches, avoiding raised roots and fallen trees, Rose amazed the group with the speed and accuracy of her run, her feet barely touching the floor, made it look ore like flying than running. As the group sped up to catch many began to fall back or stop all together as Rose continued to lead the way until only five remained each of them able to see Rose in the distance, when suddenly, and disbelievingly her speed increased once again. The five remaining runners each noticed the gorge at the same moment, and instinctively began to slow as Rose continued to speed in front of them showing no sign of stopping. Suddenly Rose was air born, having sprung from a flat outcrop of rock. The five runners approached the ledge just as Rose landed firmly on the other side of the gorge. Turning sharply Rose appraised the five disbelieving faces that stared back at her.

"How the hell..." Novak began words failing him at the end.

"That's not possible" Stan added.

"She couldn't have made that jump" Ivashkov commented.

"I've only ever seen a Strigoi move like that" Kos said shock apparent in his voice.

Dimitri remained silent, to shocked to speak, as his eyes locked with Rose's.


	5. Chapter 5

"How many?" Rose asked as Eddie walked into her office.

"None" Eddie replied with obvious disappointment.

"None?" Rose questioned before sighing heavily and leaning back into her chair flipping a pencil on to her desk.

"None. You?" Eddie asked.

"Five, come on let's go grab them" Rose replied getting up from her chair, before leaving her office and making her way to the cafeteria, where lunch was being served, Eddie following closely behind her.

As they entered the cafeteria they were shocked everyone crowded round an arguing pair clearly on the edge of a fight.

"It's disgusting to see all of us moroi trailing around after her, following her orders when she's nothing more than..." Novak began.

"What your mouth, Novak"

"Come off it Belikov, she may have been your student, but that doesn't prevent her being the blood whore that she is."

alking to the centre of the confrontation Rose gently laid her hand on Dimitri's shoulder, restraining as he moved forward preparing to do something undeniably stupid, giving him a quick soft glance before turning her gaze on Novak.

"Care to repeat your last statement?" Rose said calmly.

Novak stayed silent.

"No? Well, don't worry I heard you the first time. So I'm a blood whore huh? Well, in that case go ahead" Rose said tilting her head to the side and pressing up against Novak. "Go on, go ahead, I want you to."

Seeing certainty in her eyes Novak bent his head to her exposed neck, as Rose felt the entire room tense.

"Do it" Rose goaded, "Do it and prove you are no better than the strigoi, put yourself right up there with them." She hissed, "And you know what I do to strigoi?" she added, before thrusting her hand against Novak's stomach launching him across the cafeteria, into the wall opposite.

With fury blazing in her eyes, Rose glared at the occupants of the room.

"I NEVER want to hear that term EVER used by any of you again, AM I CLEAR!" Rose yelled. "These women brought you into the world" She continued turning to the side of the room that held most of the guardians, before swirling around to face the moroi, "and they gave up their lives so they could produce guardians to keep YOU protected. These women are some of the bravest and strongest women I have ever met, and I would not have a single word spoken against them do you understand? I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

There was a murmured 'yes' and a collection of quick nods.

"Good, now get out of my sight" Rose added, making the men move quickly to the doors, "BELIKOV...not you"

With Dimitri following behind her Rose left the cafeteria and made her way over to a small alcove, secluded enough that you couldn't be seen but you could still see out.

"Want to tell me what that was all about?" Rose asked calmly.

"Apparently Novak knows Jesse Zeklos. He heard the rumour Jesse spread about you being a ...a.."

"A blood whore" Rose finished, "So what? You're going to start throwing punches at everyone who insults me?"

"I promised you I'd always protect you."

"Dimitri" Rose sighed, "People is bad mouthing me is just something your going to let wash over you, the same way I do."

"You shouldn't have to. After everything you've done you deserve the respect you've earned." Dimitri replied.

Steeping forward Rose wrapped her arms around Dimirti's neck, as he lent down wrapping his arms around her waist his chin resting on her shoulder.

"The respect I get from you is enough" Rose whispered in Dimitri's ear, before pulling back slightly to look him in the eyes.

As there eyes met, they felt the magnetic pull, that pushed them together until their lips connected, tenderly at first, before igniting their passion, causing the kiss to become deep, heated and hungry. With their hips grinding against each other, Dimitri back Rose against the wall, as his lips began to trail heated kisses down her neck, his hands cemented against her skin as he began to lift her shirt, groaning as Rose trailed her nails down his back.

A quiet 'beepbeep' followed by a small vibration, quickly ended the moment.

"Shit" Rose cursed quietly before pulling away to look at her PDA.

Smiling apologetically at Dimitri, Rose quickly hit the call button.

"Tasha, tell Christian to gather up our training group, they need to see this." Rose directed before ending the call. Pressing a chaste kiss to Dimitri's lips, "Come on" she added as she grabbed his hand towing him down the hall to her office to grab her bag.

With her bag over her shoulder and Dimirti at her side Rose climbed up into the carrier jet.

"You sure about this?" Christian questioned as Rose climbed aboard.

"No time like the present." Rose smiled.

"Right, listen up all of you, none of you are to move unless we tell you, is that understood?" Christian asked and received a collection of nods in reply.

Dumping her bag on the free end of one of the benches, Rose stipped of her shirt before changing into a black tank top, before striping out of her jeans and into a pair of skin tight black pants and pulling on a pair of black biker boots. Moving over to a close roll shutter, Rose quickly punshed in a number on the keypad before lifting the shutter to reveal a weapons hold. Pulling her hair up into a tight bun, Rose quickly set about fitting her weapons. First came a kevlar vest buckled at the side with an attached sleeve at the back, the use of which soon became obvious as Rose lifted a Samurai sword from the hold and loaded it into the sleeve. This was soon followed by a gun belt, into which was loaded two guns and two silver stakes, before finally lifting her leg and sliding another stake into her right boot. As she reached up to close the shutter Rose noticed an addition to her weaponry, a small pair of black gloves, that barely covered her knuckles, rested on a shelf in the hold, pulling the gloves from the shelf, Rose slammed the shutter down.

Tapping Rose on the shoulder Christian handed her, her ear piece as he fitted his own, wearing the same changes and additions to outfit as Rose.

"The gloves?" Christian asked raising his eyebrows.

"The gloves" Rose smiled, fitting her ear piece, before pulling on the gloves and flexing her fingers.

"We're above the target site" The pilots voice sounded over the speakers.

"Thanks Luca" Christian replied into the mic fitted in his vest.

"Ready Sparky?" Rose asked pulling open the carrier door.

"Yes, you can all move to watch" Christian stated turning to the observers as Rose moved to the other side of the carrier opposite the door.

Taking a run up Rose launched herself out the open door, landing in a crouch on the ground bellow, quickly followed by Christian. Back in the jet there was a quick rush to the door of the carrier everyone keen to watch the fight.

Only lasting around 20 minutes, the fight was over quite quickly, each of the spectators stunned and impressed with the fight, each of them commenting on particular points.

"Did you see the way she threw those guys off her?" Stan exclaimed, remembering how Rose had managed to throw off four strigoi who had managed bundle Rose into a crouch with the strigoi laying over her.

"Did you see Ozera?" Ivaskov asked impressed that Christian could hold his own nearly as well as Rose in a fight.

"Did you see the way her hand lit up" Kos added baffled. Mid-way through the fight, Rose had high-fived Christian whilst he was holding fire in his hands, causing the fire to spread over Rose's gloves and hold there, giving Rose an additional weapon. "and how fast the two of them moved?"

"Shit, that girl can fight" Novak agreed.

"Yeah, you might want to star thinking twice before you piss her off" Dimitri added firmly.

"Carrier, area secure, go through the channels and bring us up." Rose's voice directed over the speakers, as two winches began to lower, before brining Rose and Christian back on board.

Both Rose and Christian stood in the open door of the carrier, each with solemn expressions as they observed the scene bellow, as the carrier began to pull away from the area, neither of them moving until the area could no longer be seen.

"What are they doing?" Kos asked, genuinely curious.

"It's a sign of respect" Stan answered.

"For strigoi?" Novak asked in disbelief.

"For the people they were before they were strigoi" Dimitri answered, his eyes fixed on Rose, her and Christian both a bloodied and bruised.

As Rose made her way over to her weapons hold, Christian hit play on the ipod and ' Here comes a regular' sounded through the speakers of the carrier. Breathing deeply Rose closed her eyes listening to the sound of The Replacements, before gently tugging on the fingers of her gloves. In a rather ceremoniously manner Rose began to remove all of her weapons, starting with her gloves, before reaching back and removing the sword and placing in it's sheath before mounting it back in it's place. Next came the stakes, each of them wiped down and cleaned before being put back in it's home, before lastly un-holstering the two guns, the magazine removed and the camber emptied on both. After securing all her weapons Rose then reached round and unzipped the kevlar vest, placing that too in its rightful place. Raising her arms Rose swiftly removed the band in her hair, shaking her hair free as it tumbled down her back, before reaching up and closing the roll shutter. Without saying a word Rose walked back to the opening of the carrier, sitting in the open door, one leg bent up against her whilst the other dangled freely from carrier gazing back at the smoke cloud that had risen from the sight of the fight, not moving until Christian tapped her on the shoulder signalling that they were almost back to base. As the carrier touched down on the base Rose hoisted her bag over her shoulder and jump down from the carrier before the engines cut, walking away without a backwards glance.

"Rose?" Tasha called softly as she walked into Rose's office.

"Hey" Rose replied.

"Rough day?" Tasha asked

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Sure?"

"Yeah" Rose replied with a small smile.

"Ok. Are you ready to move on with the training?" Tasha asked.

"Yeah, we've only got five at the minute, but we're hoping that with more training that'll go up"

"Good, have you told them yet?"

"No, I'm going to do it now" Rose replied to which Tasha responded with a nod.

Walking out into the training area, Rose was unsurprised to see everyone crowded together waiting for instruction. As she approached the group Eddie raised his eyebrows and Rose nodded in answer to his silent question.

"Novak...Alto...Ivashkov...Kos...Belikov" Rose called before raising her hand and gesturing with two fingers for the five men to follow her.

Turning Rose walked back out of the training area, with the five men following behind her.


End file.
